Georg von Küchler

Georg Carl Wilhelm Friedrich von Küchler (Hanau, May 30, 1881 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen, May 25, 1968) was a German soldier who participated in the First and Second World Wars, reaching the rank of field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall). During the German-Soviet War of 1941-1945, he commanded the 18th Army and later Army Group North. Until January 31, 1944, he was removed from command for his inability to stop the advance of Soviet troops during the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive. Upon his dismissal, he went into reserve, and for the rest of the war he received no further command.

After the end of the war, he was tried at the High Command Trial, as part of the later Nuremberg trials. On October 27, 1948 he was sentenced to twenty years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union. He was released in 1953.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Georg von Küchler was born on May 30, 1881 at Philippsruhe Castle in Hanau, province of Hesse-Nassau, German Empire, Küchler's family were Prussian junkers. He entered the Imperial Army in 1900 as an artillery officer cadet. He was posted to the 25th Field Artillery Regiment and the following year was commissioned as a Leutnant (second lieutenant). He remained in his regiment until 1907, when he was assigned to the Military Riding School. He received a promotion to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) in 1910 and studied at the Prussian Military Academy (1910-1913). After his graduation from the academy in 1913, he joined the Great Staff in Berlin.

First World War

When the First World War began, Küchler was sent to the Western Front. Now a Hauptmann (captain), he was given command of an artillery battery. He participated in the battles of Somme and Verdun and later fought in the province of Champagne. Within a few months of Arriving at the Western Front, he had already been awarded the Iron Cross 1st class and the Order of Hohenzollern.

After serving at the front, Küchler performed staff duties in the IV Corps and later in the VIII Corps. By the end of 1916 he was the "Operations Staff Officer" of the 206th Infantry Division. He returned to Germany later in the war to take up a similar position in the 8th Reserve Division. At the end of the war, he was on the staff of Rüdiger von der Goltz, commander of the Baltic Sea Division. After the armistice and still in the Baltic, he joined the Freikorps and fought against the Red Army in Poland.

Interwar period

After the war, Küchler remained in the post-war Reichswehr. He initially served in the 1st Military District in East Prussia before receiving command of a battery in the 5th Artillery Regiment. Promoted to major in 1924, he was appointed commander of Münster for a time, before serving in the Ministry of Defense as inspector of schools. By 1931 he had achieved the rank of Oberst (colonel) and the following year he was deputy commander of what would become the 1st Infantry Division. In 1934 he was appointed division commander and promoted to Generalmajor in October. He received a new promotion the following year, to Generalleutnant and a new position, Inspector of Army Schools.

In 1938, Küchler supported Adolf Hitler when he dismissed Werner von Blomberg and Werner von Fritsch. At this stage of his career, Küchler was General of Artillery and commander of the 1. er Military District. This was an extremely important post as it was in East Prussia largely surrounded by Poland. Much of his work consisted of improving the defenses of the area; in March 1939, his troops marched towards the Lithuanian city of Memel (present-day Klaipėda).

World War II

Invasion of Poland and France

At the outbreak of World War II, the district headquarters of Küchler was designated as the 3rd Army of the Wehrmacht. He now controlled seven infantry divisions, the Panzer Division Kempf plus four brigade-sized commandos.During the invasion of Poland, some of Küchler's troops captured Danzig while the bulk of his forces advanced against the Polish army at Modlin. Where he captured 10,000 prisoners, Panzer Division Kempf was fifty miles from Warsaw but, along with the rest of the 3rd Army, was diverted into eastern Poland. Küchler's forces dealt with Polish units in the area and then linked up with Soviet troops. At the end of the Polish campaign, Küchler, who was still based in Poland, was appointed commander of the Army's Northern Border Command.

Küchler refused to use his soldiers to persecute Jewish and Polish civilians, explaining to East Prussian Gauleiter Erich Koch that "the German army is not the supplier of a gang of murderers." This infuriated Himmler. and Küchler was removed from command. In November 1939, Army Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch appointed him Commander of the 18th Army, which was then being organized in northern Germany. Said army consisted of five infantry divisions, as well as a motorized division and the 9th Panzer Division, the army was intended to carry out operations against Holland.

With this Army, and under the orders of General Fedor von Bock, he participated, in May 1940, in the Battle of France, occupying first Holland and then Belgium, taking Antwerp on May 18, 1940. He then advanced towards France, attempting to cut off the withdrawal route of the British Expeditionary Force towards the English Channel, although it was not able to prevent the English retreat at Dunkirk. At the end of the campaign, on July 19, 1940, he was promoted to colonel general.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

In 1940 he supported the Nazi racial policy and ordered, on February 22, the cessation of any criticism of "the ethnic struggle carried out in the General Government, for example, that of the Polish minorities, of the Jews and the issues of the Church. His order explained that the “final ethnic solution” required unique and harsh measures.

Küchler was an active supporter of the planned war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) against the Soviet Union. After meeting with Hitler in March 1941 to plan Operation Barbarossa, Küchler told his division commanders on April 25, 1941:

From Russia we separate a deep ideological and racial abyss. Russia is, by the immensity of its territory, an Asian state. The Fuehrer does not wish to turn to a later generation the responsibility for the existence of Germany; he has decided to force confrontation with Russia before the end of the year. If Germany wishes to live in peace for generations, safe from the threatening danger of the East, it cannot be limited to compelling Russia to retreat a little, not even hundreds of kilometers, but the objective must be the annihilation of European Russia to dissolve the Russian state in Europe.

On June 6, 1941, the German Army High Command drafted the famous Kommissarbefehl (order on commissars), which declared that—once the invasion of Russia began—the Army had the right to shoot all cadres of the Communist Party that he found in his path. Küchler enthusiastically supported the statement. "Political commissars are criminals," he said. «They must be tried and sentenced to death. In a campaign in the east, German lives will be saved and progress will be facilitated by these measures.

During Operation Barbarossa, the 18th Army, part of Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb's Army Group North, fought its way towards Ostrov and Pskov after Soviet troops from the Northwest Front withdrew towards Leningrad. On July 10, 1941, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where the advance towards Leningrad from the Luga River line continued. This had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, with the ultimate goal of besieging Leningrad.

Küchler was directly involved in the murder of mentally disabled people in the occupied Soviet Union. In December 1941, with his express consent, units of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) shot 240 mentally ill people.

On January 17, 1942 he replaced Von Leeb at the head of Army Group North, and on June 30 of the same year he was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall. During the time he commanded Army Group North he intensified artillery and air attacks on Leningrad, failing to surrender the city. As a reward for the defense he carried out in late July and early August 1943 against the Soviet Mga offensive south of Lake Ladoga, Küchler was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.

On December 21, 1943, in anticipation of the imminent Soviet offensive, the commander of Army Group North Georg von Küchler, ordered that, in the middle of the harsh Russian winter, all civilians between the current position be evacuated of their Armies and the Panther Line. They were forced to march hundreds of kilometers to the rear without food, means of transportation (which had all been requisitioned by the Germans) or warm clothing.

On December 30, Küchler insisted: «The population of the occupied Russian zone east of the Panther Line must be evacuated as quickly as possible. All men who are able must be enlisted. There should be no compromise with the preservation of family unity. Horse-drawn transportation and food will not be provided. It is the obligation of all chiefs and officers to correctly execute these orders, and any failure in this regard will be treated as a crime of exceptional gravity. Many of the civilians, forced to leave their homes without means of transportation or food or warm clothing, died.

On January 14, 1944, the Red Army launched the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive that finally drove Nazi troops from the southern outskirts of the city. This was a combined effort of the Leningrad Fronts under Leonid Govorov and the Volkhov Front under Kirill Meretskov and part of the Second Baltic Front. The Baltic Fleet provided 30% of the aviation power for the attack. final against the Wehrmacht. On June 10, 1944, Soviet forces attacked the Finns from both shores of Lake Ladoga, driving them back to the 1939 border.

On January 27, 1944, Küchler met with Hitler in Königsberg (East Prussia). The Führer accused him of cowardice, told him that his army was not fighting hard enough, and ordered him to hold his positions at any cost. Despite Hitler's orders, the 18th Army fled in disarray. On January 31, 1944, Hitler summoned Küchler again to the Wolf's Den and relieved him of command of Army Group North, replacing him with General Walter Model, whom the German High Command called "the lion of defense."

After his dismissal, he went into reserve, and during the rest of the war he did not receive any more commands. The organizers of the attack against Hitler, through Carl Goerdeler and Johannes Popitz, informed him of his intentions and asked for his support; However, he refused to participate.

Trial and sentence

At the end of World War II, he was arrested by the American occupation authorities. He was tried at the High Command Trial, as part of the later Nuremberg Trials. In his testimony about crimes against Soviet prisoners of war, Küchler admitted that conditions in the prisoner of war camps were harsh, but insisted that the main cause was the winter conditions of 1941-1942, which he called an "act of God". And he insisted that the military exaggerated POW mortality in its reports in an effort to receive more supplies for the prisoners.

On October 27, 1948, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union. His sentence was later reviewed and reduced to twelve years in prison in 1951. He was released on February 18, 1953, after serving only five years, officially due to his age and an illness that he suffered. He lived with his wife in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen region until his death on May 25, 1968.

Decorations

• Iron Cross (1914) 2.do degree (20 November 1914) and 1.♪ degree (8 January 1915)
• Brooch of the Iron Cross (1939) 2.do grade (11 September 1939) and 1.♪ (22 September 1939)
• Cross of Knight of the Iron Cross on September 30, 1939 as General der Artillerie and Commander of 3.♪ Army
• Cross of Knight of the Iron Cross with Roble Sheets on August 21, 1943 as Generalfeldmarschall and commander of the North Army Group.